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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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NATO has said its fighter jets were scrambled more than twice as often in July as during the same period last year along the alliance's eastern flank.
NATO said on Wednesday that Russian military aircraft "repeatedly flew close to NATO airspace without a flight plan and transponder signal," forcing the alliance's fighter jets to take off and intercept the aircraft.
Transponders provide information about an aircraft, such as its altitude and exact location.
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In the first half 2026 alone, NATO member Norway deployed fighter jets 62 times in response to Russian flights on NATO's northeastern flank, Newsweek reported in July.
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In just six months this year, Oslo said it had detected more Russian aircraft near its airspace than in any entire year since 2021.
While it is not unusual for military aircraft to skirt near to the airspace of other countries, Russia sending its sophisticated bombers close to NATO's borders is generally seen as an intimidation tactic.
NATO has several different air policing missions in areas close to Russian territory, like the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.
Member countries contribute a handful of fighter jets and pilots for several months at a time to help protect NATO airspace, part of what the alliance has called the "biggest reinforcement" of defense on its eastern edge in decades.
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French Rafale jets finished up a four-month stint in Lithuania this week, and responded to nearly 40 "Alpha Scrambles," or real-life alerts, NATO's Air Command said on Tuesday.
Romanian jets also temporarily stationed at the Šiauliai Air Base in northern Lithuania were scrambled close to 20 times to intercept aircraft approaching alliance airspace, NATO said.
Italian aircraft will take up the next rotation in the Baltic country after wrapping up a deployment in Romania with British fighter jets, which handed off responsibility for air policing in Romania to Spanish jets at the end of July.
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It comes as The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Russia could try a "limited" attack on a NATO country in the coming years, according to U.S. intelligence assessments.
This could range from an attempt to seize a chunk of NATO territory using unidentified troops to carrying out a cyber assault on a NATO country, the analysis indicates.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick, Matthew Robinson and Tony Phillips.
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